On-going efforts by financial institutions, such as banks, to provide sustainable, competitive differentiation for their transaction cards in the US consumer credit card marketplace include, for example, financial analysis of their businesses and market research to ascertain where there might be opportunities to innovate with one or more new credit card products. As a result of such analysis and research, it has been determined that there are currently certain issues that key segments of consumers have with existing credit card industry practices.
Such issues include, but are not limited to, the way in which late fees are assessed in conjunction with the timing of the receipt of an ordinary monthly transaction card account payment, the way customer service representatives are accessed when a card holder telephones a card issuer, and the manner in which credit card issuers communicate with prospective and existing customers through the ordinary course of business in marketing and customer communication materials.
Specifically, the findings of such analysis and research indicate a high level of dissatisfaction with the application of late fees immediately following the due date for which a transaction card account payment falls due, the degree of difficulty encountered by a card holder in navigating automated telephone response units in order to connect with a live representative, and communications to prospective and existing customers from card issuers that were perceived as overwhelming, confusing or difficult to decipher for their true intent in terms of the offer content and the terms and conditions of the account associated with the offer.